Harmful Choices (2 Samuel 15:1-12)(05/07/2023)

Harmful Choices (2 Samuel 15:1-12) - Living Life 05/07/2023 Daily Devotional Bible Study

 

Harmful Choices

 

Welcome to living life. 

I'm sure everybody here has seen a role of dominals falling.

There's something very satisfying watching all those Dominos fall just one after one another 

especially those really complex and complicated ones. 

There are even ones that you see online that go on for 20, 30 minutes at a time.

And the amazing thing I, as complicated as any of those domins can be, that it always begins with just one. 

There's one that falls that eventually spreads to everything else a falling in place

 

and today's passage is going to be about apsilon, the son of David 

and he's starting the process of rebellion to be able to overthrow his father. 

And what we see is he takes steps one by one

over the course of many years

to make sure that he's in the right situation for this rebellion.

And while his decisions cause a chain reaction 

that have adverse effects on the whole kingdom and his whole family 

it actually started way before
with king david's own sins and his own harmful choices 

that triggered all of these series of events like a never ending Domino run. 
And it shows us that there's no such thing as a small sin
for effects are very unpredictable and often very large. 
So with that, let's read today's passage to see how everything plays out. 

 

Harmful Choices

 

Harmful Choices

 

1 In the course of time, Absalom provided himself with a chariot and horses and with fifty men to run ahead of him. 2 He would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out to him, "What town are you from?" He would answer, "Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel." 3 Then Absalom would say to him, "Look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you." 4 And Absalom would add, "If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that he gets justice." 5 Also, whenever anyone approached him to bow down before him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him and kiss him. 6 Absalom behaved in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he stole the hearts of the men of Israel. 7 At the end of four years, Absalom said to the king, "Let me go to Hebron and fulfill a vow I made to the LORD. 8 While your servant was living at Geshur in Aram, I made this vow: 'If the LORD takes me back to Jerusalem, I will worship the LORD in Hebron. ' " 9 The king said to him, "Go in peace." So he went to Hebron. 10 Then Absalom sent secret messengers throughout the tribes of Israel to say, "As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, then say, 'Absalom is king in Hebron.' "    11 Two hundred men from Jerusalem had accompanied Absalom. They had been invited as guests and went quite innocently, knowing nothing about the matter. 12 While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. And so the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom's following kept on increasing.

You know, Epsilon was handsome he was cunning he was smart and he was talented

he had good looks and charm and he was not afraid to use all of that to be able to win over the favor of the people. 

We were also told that absalom provided himself with a chariot and horses and men to stand around him. 

He appointed himself judge

to be able to hear the complaints of the people to fan the flames of discontent men and to blame David for the people's sufferings

and he even tricks people into joining him. 

He tricked 200 people to be part of his sedition. 

He also invites hithopel, a very important figure, to be his counsellor in the midst of all of this
and for four years he does this and finally, after this 4th year, he's ready to instigate open rebellion against his father, king David. 
You know, everything Epsilon did was premeditated. 
He planned it out. He made choice after choice to achieve this goal.
And while king David appears to be terribly unaware of all of this all of this didn't happen in just one moment. 
It wasn't just Absalon who came up with this plan. 
It actually stemmed from something that happened way back in the past.

You know, if you read scripture, you understand that David had committed some terrible sins while he was king. 
He took another man's wife and had her husband killed. 
David was also a very bad father. 
He was an absentee figure
as we know that david's son, abnon, had raped his half sister, tomar, who also happened to be the full sister of Epsilon. 
And although David was furious at the end, he didn't really do anything about I. 
A while later, abstealon kills Amnon and though he is forced to leave Jerusalem because of that
and eventually his status is reinstated by king David. 
You see everything is connected. 
There's one sin leading to another which leads to another. 
And while David had many chances to rectify his mistakes he actually just allowed each sin to grow into an uncontrollable force
eventually leaving Absalon the opportunity and motivation for rebellion. 

You know we have two men making choices 

a david's choice to refuse to engage in the lives of his children refuse to address his own personal sin and the sins of his family and absalon's choice to rebel.
And once again, it's choice after choice after choice 

and it just grows and grows and grows until it tears this family and this nation apart
in a way that's the power of sin. 
You know sin has a way of multiplying, 

you know, one sin leading to another one mistake leading to another trying to fix that previous mistake.
And like we mentioned before, David was an absentee father and while there were issues with Amnon and Tumar and Epsilon and all of these things, he refused to address it allowing the sin to grow

and he thought that he was loving his children by leaving them be. 
But in reality, that was the worst thing that he could have done. 
You know, when you allow the sin in your life to fester in your life, that's exactly what it does. 
It grows and it takes a hold of every part of your life

 

and it reveals itself in ways that are unimaginable and seemingly uncontrollable. 
When we give into our temptations, it's never just about that one moment
because those things will lead to another they will grow and grow and grow. 
Our pride will grow our desires will grow. 
And that's what happened with Epsilon 

every terrible decision he made every sin against his father and sin against God led to another greater one.
So what is it that we must do today? 

First we must acknowledge the nature of our sin and understand that sin is powerful. 
Sin is tempting sin can overtake us and we are weak. 
But we must also remember is that sin never has the final word it never has the ultimate power over us.
And though it is difficult for us to handle it on our own, because of our own sinful nature we must always remember that we are never alone in I.
So, in order to fight I, we must address I. 
We must admit it we must tackle it and not hide from it not hide it itself not allow it to take over ourselves 

but to be able to address it in our lives which means to fight it to hate it
to repent of it to turn away from it and to address any side effects of I. 
So for example, if you wrong someone it's not just to repent to God afterwards but we need to go and fix that relationship.
And if we're harboring some ill will or hatred for others I, or if there's some other sin that's causing us to stumble in our faith, we must avoid it at all costs. 
As Paul writes in aus chapter four do not give the devil a foothold.

Once again, we must remember we are never alone if we're just a few weeks removed from easter. 
Let us not forget the meaning of the cross. 

Today let us look upon our lord and savior, Jesus Christ and the cross not only to save us from the effects of sin, but also save us from sin I.
So today let's turn to him asking for help whatever it is that you need to do to free yourself we must do I. 
There's nothing that we can do to allow sin in our lives. 
We must fight it at all costs. 
And remember, when you need help, ask Jesus and he will always, always be there for us no matter what.

 

When do you feel tempted to leave your local church?

 

Today, as we reflect on the sins of David and the sins of Epsilon, in a way, let's take this opportunity to look inside ourselves to recognize the dangers of sin and to be able to come together, 

look at our own selves and repent of them to be able to turn away from our sin and take this time as an opportunity to turn back to God let us all pray

 

lord, thank you for giving us this word and thank you, lord
that even though this is a very tough passage to read, we pray that you will be able to just,
I'll take that time to reflect the sin in our own lives lord and be able to acknowledge I.
I admit that we have fallen that we have this nature 
but also lord, take this opportunity to come to you 
to be able to fully repent, to turn away to hate our sin. 
Lord, help us lord to be vigilant and diligent in all that we do 
that we're able to fight any sin that tries to creep inside of us
lord and we know that we are never alone in 
this so we thank you and we love you and we turn to you today and we pray all this in Jesus name 
amen.